The election of authorities of the Unión Tranviarios Automotor (UTA) has been formally postponed. Chamber I of the National Labor Appeals Court ruled this Wednesday that the elections scheduled for October 7 and 8 could not validly take place under current conditions, due to the irregularities detected in the voter registry, the distribution of polling stations, and the officialization of the candidate lists. In this context, the ruling —which LA NACIÓN had access to— ordered that the bus drivers' union's "electoral process be rolled back" to the "stage of submitting lists and endorsements," and set a new voting date for December 17 and 18. Meanwhile, it rejected the suspension, and also kept in place the composition of the Central Electoral Board and the local electoral boards, though with permanent oversight by a judicial monitor, who will be the lawyer Matías Cremonte, to access records, databases, and documentation and to monitor the various stages of the process. The decision was made in response to the case initiated against the UTA and the Electoral Board by the opposition Negra (Black) List, led by Maximiliano Escriba, current head of the Mar del Plata branch, and represented by the lawyer Leandro Recalde. In their reasoning, the judges emphasized that the court had initially attempted to have the anomalies corrected by the electoral body itself, but concluded that the gray areas persisted and, in some cases, worsened. "The consequence of the foregoing is as delicate as it is unavoidable," the Chamber I ruling stated, before concluding that under these conditions "the election could not validly be held" on the dates initially set. The ruling was signed by judges Enrique Catani and Gabriela Alejandra Vázquez. The news landed in a heated scenario within the UTA, where the leadership faction seeks, through the Celeste y Blanca (Light Blue and White) List, to have the current secretary general, Roberto Fernández, validate his position at the head of the powerful union for the fifth time. The prior judicialization of the statute, in turn, had already broadened the electoral contest to other rivals. Among them were the former leadership member Alberto Patiño (Marrón/Brown List) and the Trotskyist Claudio Gómez (Bordó/Burgundy List), in addition to Escriba, whose candidacy represents a continuation of the old opposition faction to Fernández once led by the union leader Miguel Bustinduy. A questioned voter registryOne of the main focuses of the ruling is the electoral registry. The Chamber detected 2,870 exclusions processed between June and August, all under the generic cause "Termination of Employment (dismissal, resignation, etc.)," without recording the date the employment relationship ended. This detail is relevant because the regulations preserve the membership and voting rights of dismissed workers for six months. Furthermore, in the "Review of Claims," the court found more than 500 individually identified registrations requested by the Celeste y Blanca List and more than 1,000 additional exclusions, without the necessary documentation or the prior hearing required for challenges. For the new process, it ordered that registrations be backed by documentation and that removals indicate the cause and date of termination, while no challenge may be resolved without a prior hearing for the member. Alberto Patiño, Maximiliano Escriba, and Claudio Gómez, Fernández's challengers in the UTAThe Chamber also questioned the distribution of the 61,664 voters across 494 polling stations: eleven exceeded 600 voters and some exceeded 1,000, while four had only 1 voter and eleven others did not exceed 4, which could compromise the secrecy of the vote. The new organization must set a maximum of 600 voters per station, only in the locations established in the call for elections, and group together those who belong to establishments with few voters. In parallel, polling stations were found to be located outside the designated places, and a resolution by the Electoral Board erroneously stated the elections would be held on "December 7 and 8" instead of October. The court also noted that the ballots had been prepared and sent to the printer without the prior approval of each group. Going forward, the ballot designs must be approved by the authorized representatives at least 48 hours before printing, and the ballots must be in the possession of the Electoral Board ten days before the election. The reopening of the process will also allow the Negra List, which had been excluded in six branches, to submit or reformulate its slates during the ten business days established by the Chamber. The ruling set specific guidelines for San Luis, Entre Ríos, Neuquén, Santiago del Estero, La Plata, and Chaco; it provided for openings to incorporate new female candidates to meet the requirements for female representation; and it enabled a complementary ballot box for challenged votes from passive members, members incorporated after April 24 with disputed seniority, and individuals listed as deceased until their status is verified. The definitive officialization of the lists must be completed before October 30, the definition of the polling stations will be on December 1, and the final vote count and proclamation must conclude before December 29. Labor conflict